


The Worst Kind of News

by the_empty_man



Series: Missing In Action [1]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Possible Character Death, Set a few hours after Episode 28, Some swearing btw, and making myself sad, i don't really know to tag things but oh well, just me failing to come to terms with things that happened 20 episodes ago, spoilers for Episode 28
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 21:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11518197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_empty_man/pseuds/the_empty_man
Summary: Lovelace wakes up in the med bay, desperate to know what happened while she was unconscious.





	The Worst Kind of News

Lovelace lay in the Hephaestus medical bay, staring at the ceiling, listening to the beeping of the heart rate monitor. She'd given up calling out to Hera to try to find out what was happening. The AI seemed to be ignoring her, which was not a good sign. She heard the door open.

"Captain," said Minkowski from the doorway, "it's good to see you're conscious." Her tone was emotionless.

"You could at least try to sound pleased," muttered Lovelace sarcastically. Ignoring the pain, she propped herself up slightly so she could see the commander. The sight of Minkowski's pale face and trembling hands made Lovelace draw in her breath sharply. Her grey eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. "Woah, Commander," Lovelace couldn't help saying, "you look like shit."

"Thanks, I could say the same about you." Minkowski said bitterly, still floating by the door.

"Yeah, but I've got a chest full of shrapnel," Lovelace retorted. The heart rate monitor was beeping much faster than it had been a few minutes ago. Minkowski couldn't have looked much worse if she _was_ the gravely injured one. "Are you okay? What happened while I was out of it?"

Minkowski drew a shaky breath. "I-We-The..." Her uncertain words became a sob. She ran a hand over her face and took several deep breaths. Lovelace watched, biting her lip. Anything that shook the commander this much had to be really bad.

"Minkowski? What happened?" Lovelace demanded, sounding much harsher than she intended.

"W-We lost Eiffel," the commander said, quickly forcing the words out. It took Lovelace a moment to process the meaning. An agony rose in her chest that had nothing to do with her injuries.

"Oh God... He's dead?" 

"No, but-" Minkowski wasn't meeting Lovelace's eyes, instead glaring fixedly at the heart rate monitor. Lovelace struggled to to get up, to unstrap herself from the bed, but she was still too weak. "He was in your ship and the bomb went off... He's heading rapidly into deep space, no working engines, no power, out of Comms range already..."

"Fuck. Is there nothing we can do?" Minkowski took another deep breath. "I-I don't think so." Lovelace clenched her fists and screwed her eyes shut. She remembered how she promised herself she wouldn't get attached to any of this crew. She'd known what happened on Goddard missions. She'd known it could happen again. It was clear now how much she'd failed at her resolution. She'd opened herself up to this pain. How could grief still hurt this much when she'd felt it so many times? Now there was another name to add to the list in her head, that incessant chant of grief and guilt: _Fisher, Lambert, Hui, Rhea, Fourier... Eiffel. Mace, Sam, Kuan, Rhea, Victoire, Doug._

"Will you stay for a bit?" Lovelace asked the Commander. She didn't want to be alone right now. But all she heard in response was the med bay door closing. She opened her eyes and Minkowski was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Please let me know what you think! This is hopefully going to be part of a series exploring the aftermath of Episode 28: Who's There? I'm really interested in looking at how the Hephaestus crew dealt with losing Eiffel.  
> Also, I couldn't find a way to fit it into the dialogue, but I imagined that Hera was ignoring Lovelace not due to any technical fault, but out of her sadness and anger. She managed to work around her programming a little to give herself some alone time.


End file.
